The present invention relates generally to point of sale (POS) terminals and automated teller machines (ATMs), and, more specifically, to receipt printers therefor.
A typical POS terminal is found in a retail establishment, such as a supermarket, for completing a purchase transaction. Products being purchased are itemized on a list which is printed upon completion of the transaction. Similarly, an ATM prints a receipt upon completion of a typical banking transaction.
Both machines use conventional printers in the exemplary form of either dot matrix printers or thermal printers for printing on demand the relevant information for each transaction. These printers are also being adapted for additionally dispensing various promotions either printed on demand or preprinted on the receipt paper.
Preprinted promotions may be provided in any conceivable form for promoting various products or services. For example, the promotions may include product coupons having a redeemable value for a monetary rebate or multiple product purchase at discount price. The promotions may also include various banking services such as certificates of deposit and various loans at promotional rates.
Product and service promotion is typically tailored or customized across given geographical regions such as within the United States. Based on various marketing objectives, different promotions are offered in different regions across the United States.
However, the paper receipt rolls used for the receipt printers in the POS terminals and ATMs are typically manufactured in a relatively few production plants which typically cover more than one region. Accordingly, when the receipt rolls are manufactured with different preprinted promotions thereon intended for delivery to different geographic regions, suitable care must be exercised to ensure the proper delivery of the different receipt rolls to the proper geographic regions for use in the corresponding receipt printers. This may be manually accomplished by providing suitable identification labels on the cartons containing several receipt rolls, and maintaining a manual tracking system to ensure that the identified cartons are delivered to corresponding regions.
As marketing activities become increasingly targeted to small geographic regions, including individual POS terminals or ATMs, the difficulty of controlling inventory, tracking movement of the customized receipt rolls, and validating delivery to the correct receipt printer correspondingly increases. Furthermore, some preprinted receipt rolls may be time limited in usefulness and must be timely delivered to the correct receipt printer for use by intended customers.
Accordingly, it is desired to improve the delivery process of customized receipt rolls to selected receipt printers in various machines such as POS terminals and ATMs.